cat is scared of me and plain doesn't like me.

by Brandon King
(Chino Hills, Ca United States)

We've had this cat for about a year and a half. The cat, bebe, used to be fine i used to bottle feed her and play with her for hours. Now she hisses at me, growls and runs from me, but is fine with my gf. she can be moody at times and on rare occaisions will claw at you when irritated. This started after a smacked her, not hard, for clawing up my girlfriend. I was not very rough with her, in fact my gf is rougher with her and bebe is fine with her. I just want my cat back to normal around me, what can I do? please help!

Answer by KateWell unfortunately by smacking her you have made your cat fear you and so it is not serprising that she runs from you. Cats don't understand our idea of disciplin, please see this page about it here https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-discipline.html. If you follow the rules described on this page when she tries to scratch etc, eventually she should learn not to do it.

As for how she reacts to you, well all you can do is to try and rebuild her trust in you. You will have to this on her terms though. Please see my page about cat bonding for some ideas on how to try and get her to trust you again.https://www.our-happy-cat.com/new-cat.html